


love notes and the way you smile

by aught (orphan_account)



Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, M/M, Multimedia, Prom
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-29
Updated: 2020-06-29
Packaged: 2021-03-03 19:41:30
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,521
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24980995
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/aught
Summary: Prom with feelings.
Relationships: Jeon Wonwoo/Lee Jihoon | Woozi
Kudos: 20





	love notes and the way you smile

**Author's Note:**

> UNBETA-D!!!!!!!!!! once again. i'll most probably post part two next week???? mayhaps earlier but dont expect anything from me. this was honestly written out of the blue and is my first wonhoon ever!!!! their dynamic is so good, jul brain be damned!
> 
> scream at me on @lsmbsk on twitter <3

The day Wonwoo messaged Jihoon that he’d be transferring to their class for the upcoming school year, he was met with a dry flurry of questions he racks his brain about. (It was only two, Wonwoo admits he has a flair for the dramatics.)

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Wonwoo gets seated beside another transferee— raising his eyebrows at all the things said transferee pulls out of his backpack and onto his desk, there's no room for him to judge when he's as new in this class as the other. Moon Junhui, the transferee from China, talks in a heavy accent. His tongue rolls the syllables off its surface with an unperturbed, easygoing vibe.

Like an obligation, they hang out during break: walking to the cafeteria side by side and shoulders brushing against each other, wandering around the court, and looking at the dewy blades of grass belonging to the soccer field with Junhui’s eyes glimmering and Wonwoo nibbling on his straw beside him before they run back to class as the bells ring.

As the first week passes, their routine lasts as long as they sit together. Wonwoo still hasn't approached Jihoon nor does he plan to, except with the necessity of group projects. 

They're definitely on speaking terms, self-proclaimed best friends since they first met two years ago, but Wonwoo remembers the times when he was enamoured for Jihoon during those two years and he just shies away from the boy instinctively. He’d confessed between those years and Jihoon took it too well, awfully well despite the circumstances. Wonwoo learns about why through a little note stuck into his lunch bag last year, months after his confession, written in Jihoon’s messy scribbles are the words, **_I like you, too_**.

Nothing happens, nothing changes.

Jihoon is still Wonwoo’s best friend at the end of every nightly conversation through messaging applications, and vice versa. They move on with their lives as high school students, prioritizing education before anything else is what their parents taught them, as well as other parents taught their children who’ve finished their schooling or their children that are about to enter the barely hidden hierarchy of retaining knowledge spoonfed to them at a young age of three years old.

Everything stays the same, Wonwoo supposes he should just wait as the childish light of butterflies and adoration dim and cease from his abdomen.

📝

Months pass and seat assignments change as a new trimester welcomes them— Junhui’s no longer sitting next to Wonwoo and is now sitting beside a boisterous Kwon Soonyoung, who has a big natural smile plastered on his lips that his eyes disappear and he looks a bit like a hamster. As usual, Wonwoo's stationed at the front, myopia truly making things difficult for him; he hears Jihoon ask to stay on his previous seat, clutching his backpack like how mothers would carry their steadily growing child as his worn Chuck Taylors squeak against the floor.

Wonwoo finds himself turning around to look at Jihoon and smile at him for absolutely no reason, he just felt like doing it.

Despite being so far away from one another, Junhui still calls on Wonwoo to wait for him as the latter walks through the corridor and approaches the stairs that lead them to the cafeteria. “You looked like you had whiplash after you smiled at Jihoon this morning.”

 ** _Really?_** He thinks, poking at the foil of his yogurt drink with a small straw.

“Soonyoung said you looked totally lovesick.” Wonwoo sputters out droplets of his drink in front of him, unknowing of where his saliva and wasted yogurt had been spat on.

The person sitting on the bleachers wipes away the droplets off his face with the sleeves that cover his hands, and he looks up at Wonwoo with an upturned grimace. "Didn't know you'd be so skillful at projectile spitting, Wonwoo." Wonwoo heaves, automatically causing Junhui's hand to try and dislodge whatever worked its way into his throat with forceful slaps on his back.

"I'm sorry, Ji..."

Jihoon laughs loudly, uncaring for those who turn to look at him as it echoes around the court. He stands up and hands Wonwoo another palm-sized bottle of the drink, patting his back as he passes them.

He's completely forgotten that Junhui was there the whole time and he turns to him. Junhui just laughs and points at his burning ears, clapping at the sight. Wonwoo sighs as he finishes drinking the bottle Jihoon had given him in a couple seconds, his ears and cheeks still flushing a soft red after remembering what had occurred.

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The notification dings and Wonwoo is doused in confusion, scrambling to his feet as he opens the curtains to peek down— Jihoon is there, on his bike and looking up at Wonwoo (or Wonwoo's window, previously).

He blinks down at Jihoon who's smiling at him with his eyes almost closing, Wonwoo knows they aren't though and he smiles back as he overcomes the shock. He feels the light blush creeping onto his face and ears and he ducks down, hiding behind the walls that surround the window. His heart is about to beat out of his chest and it feels so terrible that he compares it to P.E. class but miles above and starts cussing out whichever Gods made this happen to him.

A knock and his door opening steers him away from his reverie, his mother's face greets him with a smile. "Should I call him up?" She says, and as the words escape her mouth, Wonwoo's dignity does the same to his body. He shakes his head at her, hands covering cheeks and knees pulled to his chest, looking like the human embodiment of flustered. She smiles, "I'm gonna call him up." And Wonwoo's resolve crumbles to the floor.

He sighs, picking up pieces of his dignity off the floor and brings them with him as he lies on his bed. Wonwoo counts the passing seconds when Jihoon still hasn't entered, probably getting his head chatted off by his mom.

Wonwoo loses count when the knob turns and Jihoon greets him with a smile, **_the smile_** where his eyes crinkle up and Wonwoo's heart goes off-kilter. Yeah, **_that_** one. The one he constantly uses on Wonwoo, now Wonwoo doesn't know if Jihoon is doing this to him on purpose or not but it causes an effect on him either way. 

It dawns over him that Jihoon liked him too, it's a year too late but his heart dances in its place behind his ribs and all the muscles that make him up. His thoughts go into overdrive, filling with questions of **_Does Jihoon still like me, then? What does Jihoon make of his infatuations? Am I in love?_** He feels surprised at the last one, shaking his head to clear it of thoughts, it doesn't, but he catches Jihoon's attention instead.

The hand hovers over his forehead before he gets flicked and the sound of nail hitting bone buried under layers of skin reverberates to his ears. Wonwoo groans, covering his forehead to protect it from future attacks and Jihoon laughs, tilting his head back with his mouth wide open and pearly whites reflect the retreating sunlight.

"You're unfair, what did I do to deserve that?" Wonwoo pouts, melting into his own sheets and curling into himself. Jihoon lays a palm on his stomach, barely protected by the white shirt he changed into after school, and it's warm. "I'm not pregnant, go away." He swats at Jihoon's hand and stretches his limbs out, anticipating the satisfying pop of joints.

"Who said you were? Did I say that I wanted a child?" The sarcastic remark is expected of Jihoon but Wonwoo's eyes widen at the second part and his world shakes in its axis.

Jihoon's hand is back on its spot on Wonwoo's stomach, warm and enticing, and to be frank, Wonwoo is more than enticed at the moment. Enamoured would be a good word for it— or lovesick. The boy's sharp eyes run over his face, gaze piercing enough through the surface of his mind, probably, and Wonwoo shivers, hoping Jihoon felt none of it from his hand.

Wonwoo feels the bed dip as Jihoon lies beside him, warmth directly seeping through his arms to Wonwoo's own. It's electrifying, mostly on Wonwoo's part and he hopes the beating of his heart would cease. He would blame it on being touch starved as most highschool students are, but the erratic **_lub-dub_** that reaches its way to his ears states otherwise; no person would have their heart jumping at the mere touch of arms. Even worse when Jihoon faces him and goosebumps rise on the surface of his skin as the boy's arm reaches over his torso only to trace shapes onto his lower back.

"Spoon." Jihoon whispers between the two of them, the air is comfortably quiet, shared between best friends crossing societal boundaries. Wonwoo turns around, facing the wall as he melts into Jihoon's grasp and warmth. He feels Jihoon's breaths on his nape, soft and so near that Wonwoo's sure his heart starts skipping beats. "Goodnight, Won."

His eyelids become heavy as the body curled around him falls lax, their legs are tangled together and their hands intertwined. Wonwoo falls victim to the powerful forces of sleep and warmth.

Bohyuk opens the door with a quiet flourish, words of dinner on the tip of his tongue, ready to spill forth his brother. Instead, the words disappear and he gapes at his brother before snapping a picture without sound as to not bother the pair.

📝

Talks about senior prom are heard everywhere in the small campus, whispers asking who'll be taking who is present in every corner of their classroom. Wonwoo's thoughts drift off to Jihoon in a sleek and perfectly cut suit, but he knows he can't force Jihoon to go no matter what. He doesn't even want to go, just wants to see Jihoon in a suit and slow dance with him in said suit, probably with something by Ed Sheeran playing over the speakers.

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Wonwoo calls Jihoon over to his house a week before prom, planning on showing Jihoon the suit borrowed from his dad.

"You're going?" Jihoon is hard to read sometimes when he wants to be, it doesn't work to Wonwoo's favor but he is still awfully attracted to the boy and he thinks it might never falter under his watch.

Wonwoo answers with a shrug, "Still considering it." He says as he plops on his bed beside Jihoon's sitting figure. It might be a far reach but Wonwoo pointedly wants to see Jihoon's reaction to him wearing the suit, so he bites the bullet he shoots. "Do you want to see?" Jihoon hums as he lies on the bed on his side with his palm supporting his head.

"Don't peek, then." Wonwoo throws over his shoulder at Jihoon, he feels his skin prickle as the heavy feeling of someone watching you falls over him. He's close to stark naked, save for the boxers that protect the remaining shards of his already broken dignity. He is also awfully aware that he's very lanky and awkward with his body, and that adds to the insecurity over Jihoon's wandering gaze. "I said don't look."

He turns around to face the perpetrator and walks over to him in his borrowed silk long sleeves, small white bandana wrapped carelessly around the collar, and in his underwear. Needless to say, Wonwoo has gone absolutely bonkers, crazy, out of his mind. "What if I want to look?" Jihoon raises an eyebrow at him, hair falling over his eyes and he shakes his head to put the strands back in place.

Wonwoo would faint if he was sane, which he isn't.

The color reaches Wonwoo's ears and cheeks soon enough as his insides burst in pink. He turns back to the black suit and continues to put it on, tucking the shirt inside his pants as he slips them on. Finishing off with the suit jacket, he ruffles his hair and turns back to the other person in the room, the person he put this suit on for.

"What do you think?"

Jihoon seizes him up and over, eyes trailing over his stature and moves to lay on his back, he shoots a thumbs up at Wonwoo's direction. "Ditch the lenses, you still have your contacts, right? And the hair, part it off-center, maybe." Wonwoo sucks in a deep breath, exhaling all his expectations out into the air of his small bedroom. Jihoon turns to look at him again, lifting his hand to point at the ceiling. "Also, if you decide on going... text me? I'll pick you up."

"Did you not get the fact that it's your birthday on prom night and you're supposed to celebrate it at home into your skull?" Wonwoo smiles as he lies beside Jihoon on his bed, pushing the other to scoot over and make room. He feels restless, as he always does with Jihoon. It's weird that he's offering him a ride to prom when he isn't even planning on going, it definitely ruffles Wonwoo's heart enough to believe that he'll be seeing Jihoon in the perfectly cut suit he pictured weeks ago, and his brain doesn't even have the guts to tell it to shut up, just accepts it like it's the new norm between Wonwoo and Jihoon.

"Did you not get the fact that you promised to play games on my birthday?" Jihoon shoots back, equally sarcastic but less serious about it. Wonwoo fixes a raised eyebrow at him with a small pout, hands coming to poke Jihoon's sides. "Stop right there, bones." The boy pushes his hands away, wrapping one hand over both of Wonwoo's wrists to serve as a temporary cuff. Wonwoo could simply break free, but he doesn't want to. It always feels nice joking around with Jihoon like this, alone and just themselves. The pink warmth in him glows even brighter as he and Jihoon have a staring contest, unannounced, just feeling like the right thing to do.

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Tonight's event and the two hearts Jihoon sent him make the butterflies in his stomach flutter. He isn't supposed to be giddy for prom, not even supposed to attend, but daydreams of Jihoon all handsome and proper and stuff in his imaginary suit has him thinking less than innocent thoughts that he would not like to go into detail with.

His thoughts derail as he hears Junhui calling his name and his eyes flick over to Soonyoung clapping before his face, he jumps and clutches his heart in surprise. "What?" He closes his eyes as he takes small breaths, his heart beating out of his chest.

"Are you going?" Junhui turns to him, fingers drumming on Soonyoung's thighs. "Tonight, I mean."

Wonwoo nods and tilts his head to the side, eyebrows lifting to ask a silent question. He is still fairly unsure if Jihoon would be tagging along, "I'll probably give it like, 10 minutes and if I don't see Jihoon in a suit, I'll ditch." Wonwoo shrugs, fingers toying with the straw of his drink, twirling it around and then finally stabbing it into his drink. "It's his birthday so I'll go steal his games."

"You just want to get into his pants, though?" Soonyoung gives him a once over, munching on his wafers. "That, and your very obvious heart eyes for him."

Junhui just laughs at an alarmingly high volume, tilting his head back to further echo the sound, and Soonyoung bursts out soon enough. He just sulks, clutching his elbows close and sipping on his drink with a pout.

He feels time stop when Jihoon approaches them on the bleachers, holding a pack of rice crackers and a bottle of water. "Are you laughing at Wonwoo? May I join?" Wonwoo's heart might just break his ribs and tear his skin just to run off somewhere no one can hear it beat but it doesn't, instead it's him that wants to run away from everything despite last week's occurrences.

"He's going to prom without a date," Soonyoung states as Jihoon puts down his food to sit beside the target of Junhui and Soonyoung's teasings. Wonwoo turns to him with a pout and blood already rushing to his ears. His eyes carefully trace the slope of Jihoon's nose, the cute dip of his lips, and his dimples. It drives him enough to brush away the occurrence of Jihoon staring back at him.

Soonyoung and Junhui flit their gazes upon both of them before turning to each other, sharing a knowing look. Jihoon moves his eyes away from Wonwoo, "There's no problem with that, though?" He says, pulling out a small thing from his pockets and placing it before Wonwoo. It's wrapped in green foil, the type that got smoothed out and made into disposable whistles by kids. He grabs it, quick to rid of the wrapping and melting it in his mouth. "That's a mint."

"Yeah." With a nod of the head, Jihoon is back on his feet, pocketing his trash. 

He leans down, soft lips brushing against Wonwoo's earlobe. Time stops when goosebumps form on his skin and he feels a shiver down his spine, Jihoon's breath accompanying the natural phenomena like a violinist to a pianist. It's nothing short of chilling, yet he feels warm in every fiber of his being. "See you later, call me."

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Their school let the students go home to prepare for tonight's prom; with nothing to do, Wonwoo lounged around until sunset playing mobile games and checking his social media accounts with nothing important other than seeing his classmates’ posts of their dresses or suits, or both together for those with dates. **_Is Jihoon my date? It's not like he’ll actually join in, right? He’s not much of a socialite and neither am I…_** Wonwoo's thoughts falter when his mom knocks on his door and reminds him loud enough to pass through the thick wood of the door, to which he responds with the same enthusiasm, rising from his perch on his bed.

It's not hard to remember the few times Jihoon has taken his place on Wonwoo's bed before he sleeps or when he's in the middle of a game, it's practically burned into his retinas, the image of Jihoon lying beside him or when he's spooning him. It all makes Wonwoo divert to the what ifs and the regret, but enough said, he's clean and in his (dad’s) suit.

He removes his glasses and shakily puts on his contacts, blinking his eyes to adjust to the feeling. Jihoon's judgement was rarely wrong, even when Wonwoo's imagining being an outsider to everything, he's calculated and precise with his every move and decision so Wonwoo gladly takes his advice of going without glasses and fixing his hair in a side part. He's fully dressed now.

Once he's all done with the pep talk to himself, he calls Jihoon.

“ _Hello? Ji?_ ”

“ _Outside._ ” Is all he hears before the call is dropped and there are three beeps ringing throughout his mind.

Just as said, a different beep is heard from outside his house. Take care and I love you’s hastily said before he goes running to Jihoon's car.

“Looking good, hotshot.” Jihoon greets with a smile that gets brightened by the lights of the small screen displaying Treasure by Bruno Mars stopped dead in the middle. He’s dressed in an oversized shirt, shorts, and slides, very underdressed for the occasion. **_He isn't going with me_**. Wonwoo dejectedly thinks, schooling his face to a small smile. “Ready to go socialize for four hours, Mr. I’m-going-to-prom?”

Wonwoo turns to him, brushing hair away from his eyes, “No, actually. I should've just trespassed into your house and stolen your console.” He smiles at Jihoon before going to stare outside at the streetlamps they’re passing by, tells himself that It's okay that you won't see him in a suit, maybe when he gets married would be your last chance. It's sad, the way he was happily looking forward to seeing the man of his dreams in a sleek suit knowing that he wouldn't but still hoping helplessly.

Jihoon doesn't respond but he does laugh, tinkling throughout the small space of his car. Wonwoo doesn't bother looking at the backseat, expecting what normally would be in a teenager’s car, despite being a teenager himself, a young adult if you will. Instead, his heart beats rather dramatically with an unknown feeling, it just simply hurts. He feels cold, hands shaking on his lap, but he fights it off, doesn't want to ruin the mood in the car.

They arrive a few minutes after Wonwoo's almost crying session, Jihoon slowly pulls into a free parking spot before disconnecting his phone from the stereo and turning the engines off. When Wonwoo stands outside beside Jihoon fussing with something in the backseat, he only looks up at the stars that are barely visible.

“I’ll get going inside, yeah?” Wonwoo asks, voice unwillingly shaky.

“Yeah, see you.”

**_What does that mean?_ **


End file.
